Be the Cool Guy in Adventure Time Card Wars

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So who’s the coolest: you or your best friend? There’s only one way to know for sure, you must face off in an epic battle of Adventure Time Card Wars!

Card Wars is a two-player card game based on the wacky Adventure Time TV series. The game was even played on the show before it appeared on game shelves. It’s meta like that. The game really nails the trifecta of good small games: it’s easy to learn, it offers a surprising amount of strategy, and it is so entertaining to play.

It starts out simply enough: each player starts with a deck of cards, four landscape tiles, and 25 health. The landscape tiles are placed on the table in four lanes that must be defended or your opponent will pummel you into oblivion. If your health reaches zero, you lose and your opponent is deemed the coolest.

Your deck is made up of creature, building, and spell cards. Creatures are placed on landscapes and can attack, buildings are placed on landscapes to support your creatures, and spells offer crazy one-time-use effects.

To begin, grab five cards from your deck. Then take turns battling until one player has no more health. Turns go like this:

Ready your cards by turning them right side up.

Draw a card.

Spend two Action points setting up your pro strategies. You can draw a card for one Action point or play cards for up to two Action points.

Floop some cards if you want. Turn a card sideways to activate its Floop-ability. Beware though, Flooped cards don’t fight.

Fight! All creatures on your landscapes that are not Flooped must fight. When a card fights, it will attack the creature in the same lane as it and that creature will retaliate. If there is no opposing creature, you get to wallop on your opponent instead. If you really want to be the cool guy, walloping your friend is what you must do best!

Each starter pack contains two heroes with their own landscapes and deck of tricks. The packs released this year come with hero cards that pack some extra punch. You can mash together a custom deck, hero, and landscape cards too.

Card Wars has all the quirky lingo and Dungeons and Dragons influence of the show. I both love and dread hearing my wife laugh when she draws a card. I can never tell if she’s planning something devious or if it’s just a funny card.

The game can quickly go from gross to cute too. In one turn my wife played Cerebral Bloodstorm (pictured on the card as a floating brain that rains blood) and dealt one damage to each of my creatures. Then I Flooped my adorable Dr. Stuffenstein card (pictured as a stuffed teddy bear surgeon) and healed two damage from one of my creatures.

If you are in the market for a funny and competitive card game that isn’t very cutthroat, I highly recommend giving Adventure Time Card Wars a shot.